Agreed. And there are many reputation systems emerging. One of them is by Rapleaf, founded by a good friend of mine in the Bay Area, Auren Hoffman.

Best,
Brett

Agreed. And there are many reputation systems emerging. One of them is by Rapleaf, founded by a good friend of mine in the Bay Area, Auren Hoffman.

Best,
Brett

Thank you for sharing that charity-based review incentive program, that is an outstanding idea that I hope we can leverage.

I agree that there is more to life than fame & that the vast majority of content on the internet is genuine and helpful. Wikipedia's success is a terrific example of this.

It will be interesting to see the kinds of online reputation systems that emerge as user-generated content spreads even further.

Thank you for sharing that charity-based review incentive program, that is an outstanding idea that I hope we can leverage.

I agree that there is more to life than fame & that the vast majority of content on the internet is genuine and helpful. Wikipedia's success is a terrific example of this.

It will be interesting to see the kinds of online reputation systems that emerge as user-generated content spreads even further.

Interesting read on YouTube. It seemed inevitable given the competitive moves they needed to respond to.

At Ice.com, you may be interested to know that The Home Depot Canada recently launched a product review incentive program for customers, where for every approved review they will donate $2 to a non-profit named Evergreen. You can read more about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/6ylxh9

I do think authenticity matters. The stakes for corporations are higher than individuals, that’s true. But everyone has their reputation to care about. Check out last month’s Wired magazine article about Julia Allison. Yes, she’s “famous”. But what is she really famous for? It would be embarrassing to everyone I personally know if they were famous for what she is famous for. Life is about more than fame. It is about self-improvement, community, career, and family.
http://tinyurl.com/5577su

Fame today, shame tomorrow.

But at the end of the day what really matters is trust. People watch videos or read content in different modalities. It all comes down to what type of audience you are trying to reach and what you are trying to motivate them to do. Do they trust the content? And do they behave the way you want them to after they see/read it? And the same goes for the person that wrote it. Ultimately, most want to be trusted and they want you to take action and be happy as a result of that action. And that is one of the many reasons that product reviews written by customers trying to help each other is so powerful. See this study for more:
http://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/2007/11/28/why-customers-write-reviews/

Interesting read on YouTube. It seemed inevitable given the competitive moves they needed to respond to.

At Ice.com, you may be interested to know that The Home Depot Canada recently launched a product review incentive program for customers, where for every approved review they will donate $2 to a non-profit named Evergreen. You can read more about it here:
http://tinyurl.com/6ylxh9

I do think authenticity matters. The stakes for corporations are higher than individuals, that’s true. But everyone has their reputation to care about. Check out last month’s Wired magazine article about Julia Allison. Yes, she’s “famous”. But what is she really famous for? It would be embarrassing to everyone I personally know if they were famous for what she is famous for. Life is about more than fame. It is about self-improvement, community, career, and family.
http://tinyurl.com/5577su

Fame today, shame tomorrow.

But at the end of the day what really matters is trust. People watch videos or read content in different modalities. It all comes down to what type of audience you are trying to reach and what you are trying to motivate them to do. Do they trust the content? And do they behave the way you want them to after they see/read it? And the same goes for the person that wrote it. Ultimately, most want to be trusted and they want you to take action and be happy as a result of that action. And that is one of the many reasons that product reviews written by customers trying to help each other is so powerful. See this study for more:
http://www.bazaarvoice.com/blog/2007/11/28/why-customers-write-reviews/

To me the internet has become a much higher stakes version of "America's Funniest Home Videos", and the potential for these "internet famous" to monetize their own content is getting greater and greater.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=75

What I also remember about "America's Funniest Home Videos" were the numerous videos that seemed absolutely fake.

There's already well-documented evidence about the backlash risks for corporations being unauthentic (see Walmart across America), but there's very little financial risk to an individual besides the loss of reputation.

As more and more individuals realize their five minutes of fame could translate into their first five million, will consumers of internet content be able to discern between elaborate staging and natural reality? Does it even matter?

To me the internet has become a much higher stakes version of "America's Funniest Home Videos", and the potential for these "internet famous" to monetize their own content is getting greater and greater.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/social/?p=75

What I also remember about "America's Funniest Home Videos" were the numerous videos that seemed absolutely fake.

There's already well-documented evidence about the backlash risks for corporations being unauthentic (see Walmart across America), but there's very little financial risk to an individual besides the loss of reputation.

As more and more individuals realize their five minutes of fame could translate into their first five million, will consumers of internet content be able to discern between elaborate staging and natural reality? Does it even matter?